1 Week Old Java

Java is really growing strong. I am so pleased as I was worried that he wouldn't even survive the condition that his mama was in when we got her.

He still loves his tote even though he is outgrowing it. Hopefully, no not hopefully... we WILL have his outdoors pen finished this weekend and he will go out and live next to his mama like a real goat should!

I have been house bound with near pneumonia and he has been an entertaining diversion during my convalescence, but it is time for him to go outside! He is sleeping less and less and demanding more attention.

Believe it or not he is house broken... ha ha I would never have thought it was possible to housebreak a goat. We have been diligent to take him outside when he wakes and when he eats and he knows what he is supposed to "do". It is so funny. If he hadn't come so quickly after we got his mama and I hadn't gotten sick and unable to build his pen outside, we would never have learned this little known goaty secret!

Maybe someone needs a pack goat they they would like to keep in their tent without worries about accidents? I can dream right?

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Mama Goat

Okay, I did it again... I have rescued a another needy creature.

Not a horse this time though... she is a goat!

I thought maybe I would like to try my hand at a milk goat so I looked around and found an ad on Craigslist that said "6-7 thin goats". I called on it and it turned out to be a goat (meat) dealer. He told me he had only one Nubian. She was a former 4H project and was ready to freshen in the next couple of weeks.

He warned me that she was thin and that she needed her feet done badly.

I went yesterday to look at her. It was already dark by the time I was there, but I could tell even by the light of the flashlight that she was 1)very sweet and 2)in need of some serious TLC.

I am so very, ummm dissapointed in the people who let her get into this condition, let alone in a feedlot waiting to be slaughtered - especially if they were a 4H family. I am pretty passionate about this subject, but I'll save that rant for another day. I want this to be Mama goat's big debut.

I walked her around the yard today and found that she leads very well. I was happy to learn that, as goats can be very stubborn. I hope she also has milking experience.

She doesn't seem sick at all, just in need of some groceries. I put her on a medicated feed today and and tonite I'll give her a CD and T shot to help stave off whatever she was exposed to at the feedlot.

Except for her bag it is even hard to tell Mama goat is pregnant. I really hope her kid survives. It is alive an moving inside her, but it is pretty small.

I will have someone over as soon as possible to help me with her feet. I don't think I have the knowledge to do them on my own.

I'll be trying to get some baby oil on her legs to soften the mud and treat the scalds on her legs as well.

She is really making up her bag. I hope she will hold off a while on having her kid. I want to get some more calories and those vaccines on board.

Welcome home goaty!

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A Small Visitor

I love sharing my horses with horse crazy little girls! Today I had a pint-sized visitor who came and helped me do all of my chores, and then (of course) she got to go for a ride!

This is my great niece. I can't believe I am old enough to be a "great" anything. I remember as a kid that all of my "greats" were ooooooold people!

This is Caddy, one of my favorite hens. Caddy is an old lady - 6 years old!

First she brushed Speedy up, and he tried to eat her hat.




All I had at the house was a bareback pad, so she didn't get to ride "all by herself" but she didn't mind. I hooked up some reins for her, although the reins didn't really serve any purpose except for her to feel like a big girl. Her grandma (my Sister -in-law) got some pics with a big smile, but this was the best she got with my cell phone.

My niece is concentrating hard in this picture! She really wasn't scared at all. In fact, I would like her to be a little more scared. She is so brave!

Speedy is saying "Lets go!", or maybe he is trying to eat my mitten, or maybe both!

I lead her around for about 1/2 an hour or so. This girl LOVES horses! She kept reaching down and patting Speedy on the neck. This summer I am going to try to talk her parents about letting me enter her in a leadline class.

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Things I wish I had pictures of

Sitting here bemoaning the loss of my video card reader, I found myself thinking about things that I wish that I had pictures of - like this morning when I looked out my back window and saw Ted and Delight lying together. Ted was behind Delight and I swear it looked like they were spooning! They never lie that close together.

It reminded me of when I was a kid positioning the animals around the manger scene at Christmas time. The camel always went behind the donkey, nestled right next to one another, looking at the Christ child.

I love looking out my kitchen window at the horses. I often see things I wish were immortalized in a picture. Speedy and Spinner (and Star) often are out there playing happily. It's ironic that our two "rescue" horses are the most playful, isn't it? They rear up on their back legs like wild mustangs, teeth flashing and manes flying. I know by the time I got out there with a camera they would stop their hyjinks and come trotting up to me looking for a treat, so I don't even try. Wish I had a picture of that!

The day Star was born I took gobs of pictures. Some of the most precious were ones of my oldest son (who was there for the birth) with her before she even got up. There were pictures of her very first efforts to stand, and her first attempts at nursing. I uploaded the pictures to my laptop, deleted the card on the camera and took more pictures. A week later - you guessed it- my laptop crashed and I lost all of my pictures. I wish I had those pictures!

One day last summer we took the kids and their horses to a show. Luckily it was a local show because our beloved hen Caddie decided to stow away in the tack compartment of the trailer! I have so many stories about this little red hen that I could devote a whole blog to her adventures. When we arrived at the show and opened the door, there she was sitting on a saddle blanket. Not a feather ruffled. I just know she was thinking, "What? Did you think you were just going to leave me behind??"

We had to unhook the trailer and taxi her back home in the truck. Wish I had a picture of that!

Here is a picture from last winter. It was taken at night. Amelia was following me around (as usual) and Star nearly got a hold of her tail! Wouldn't be the first time though. A few years ago Ted actually did grab her by the tail! He swung her side to side before she was able to scramble free! Now that is a sight that I wish I had a picture of! Crazy cat... you would think she would learn!

Tiger

Here is a picture I took the other day of a mountain lion! I can't believe how incredibly lucky I was to capture this image!

It was late one night. I heard the deep throated rumbling of its purr. Before I had time to react, it jumped onto the area where I was sleeping!

I froze and s...l...o...w...l...y reached for my cell phone to take a picture.

I lay still as possible and the she-cat curled up near me, the warmth from her body and her rhythmic purring making me sleepy. I was falling under her feline spell...


I have been entranced by this enchantress on more than one occasion.

She is Tiger.

Her name doesn't refer to her stripes, but her temperament.

Tiger is largely an outside cat. She is skittish, but a ferocious hunter. She was the last of the litter of feral kittens. No one wanted her because she was so wild. She wouldn't come when called. She ran away at the least provocation.


So we kept her as our chief mouser.


One day sometime last year she decided I was her person.

She started sneaking in the house at night to sleep with me. If I didn't move too quickly she would even let me pet her.

In the evenings she will come in the house and sit only on my lap and then follow me downstairs to bed at night. She is gone before I wake up - She runs outside when Tom goes to work.

Tiger is opinionated about who she will tolerate and my son Eli is on her Hit List. Whenever he walks into the room, Tiger scrambles off of my lap and hides under the nearest chair. I have to be careful of the angle at which she scrambles because she has been known to leave scratches in her wake. Eli is a gentle giant. He has tried to make peace with the Tiger, but to no avail.

The Pig Charlotte

Yes, her name is Charlotte. I didn't name her, although my kids sure do get a kick out of the fact that she shares a name with me!

Charlotte was given to us by a 4H leader whose kid was graduated from high school last year and has moved on to college. We brought her home 2 1/2 weeks ago. She is a Hampsire/Yorkshire cross called, appropriately enough, a Blue Butt.

Charlotte will be part of a 4H project for 3 of my kids. She is our first try at an animal of the porcine variety. Which doesn't sound like too big a a deal, except for the fact that she came to us already pregnant, and ready to farrow!

We had her for one week and one day when she blessed us with 10 'lil squealers.

It has been nearly 30 years since I have even seen a pig deliver, and I didn't know if I had enough wits to aid her if she or her babies needed help.

"Miss Scarlet, I don' know nuthin' 'bout birthin' piglets!"

When the time came I was able to get the 3 kids (whose project she is) out of school. The four of us caught and dried, warmed and welcomed the piggies to the world. I was proud of my boys who each stepped up to catch a couple of piglets. My daughter preferred to stay under the warming light and make sure each piglet was warm and dry.

Charlotte blessed us with 10 'lil piggies; 1 girl called a gilt, and 9 boys called boars.

We lost 2 during birth and one was stillborn. Had they all survived we would have had a bakers dozen! The two which died during birth were hard to lose. We did our best to revive them, and one seemed like he wanted to fight for life. The kids took their loss like troopers though. They know it is a hard truth about raising animals. Sometimes you lose some.

We have a saying on the farm, and while humorous it has a ring of truth to it:

"On a farm you got your livestock, and you got your deadstock."



All of the piglets are spoken for. Most of the 10 will wind up being projects for 4H kids. I am really excited to see how they grow and how they do at the county fair.

We will probably be sending Charlotte along to another 4H family so that they can have the same great experience as we did. Don't know if that will be sooner or later. What I do know is that she eats a LOT!! There really is something to the saying, "eats like a pig".


Here is a picture of the first two born, the little girl on the left named "Phoebe" and the boy on the right named, "Porky."

And here are 8 piglets. The last two are still inside the mama:

Queen Amelia

One day several years ago, when we first moved to this farm I lay down for a short afternoon nap. It was a warm summer day and the kids were plenty old enough to look after each other I reasoned as I snuggled into my comforter. Our little farm is an older one and we have 4 weathered outbuildings as well as a large shop/garage that all needed treasure mapped. We have 3 acres, and at that time no horses so there was room enough to explore and build forts in the tall grass and weeds.

Just as I drifted off, all 6 of the kids came running into the house, "Mom! Mom! We have kittens! Josh is out there in the garage catching them right now!!"

"What? When did we get a cat?" I answered groggily.

"No Mom, we don't have a cat! These are wild kittens! You should hear them hiss! There are four of them!" They all clamored to be the first to tell me the vital information about their newfound treasure in the garage.

Okay, I was awake now. Josh walks in with a big grin on his face and an angry growling kitten in his outstretched hands. The kitten bites him and he drops it onto the bed. All seven of us scramble to recapture the little lion cub without further injury. I was the one who finally caught her, and I have a scar on my finger to prove it.

All in all the kids captured 6 kittens that day in the garage. They were beautiful. Some were peachy cream color, some smoky grey, some calico. They lived in the dog crate until the kids were able to handle them. Then we gave them away to unsuspecting friends and advertised them in the paper.

There were two left over. One was the first kitten that Josh caught. I think the kids hid her every time someone came to look for a kitten to take home. She had long hair and had a few patches of orange, if you looked hard enough. Josh had taken to carrying her around on his shoulder. The kids had taken to calling her "Queen Amelia".

The second was one that took the longest to tame and was still quite wild. She was named "Tiger", not because of her coloring which was a short haired smoky calico with a few orange patches, but because she was ferocious.

The kids talked us into keeping the two leftover kittens and they are now our chief mousers, and keepers of the chicken house along with Tommy who is Ameilia's son.

Amelia loves to follow us around outside, meowing for attention, to be picked up and for a ride on our shoulders. I took some pictures of her with my camera and my cell phone the other day as she followed me around as I was doing chores.

"Okay, I see we are ready to do chores. You set your coffee down right here, so that your hands will be free to carry me, all right?














"Oh alright. I will just watch you feed the pig then. You are lucky I have such great balance!"

"Can you see me now?
Yes, yes, I think this bale will do for the horse's breakfast this morning."




"Look deep into my eyes... You cannot resist picking me up... You can...not... re...si....sssssst..."